May 19, 2017

Mr Corbyn's best friends

When Mr Corbyn became MP for Islington North in 1983, he was already an important figure in pro-IRA circles, such as the Troops Out movement and the Labour Committee on Ireland (LCI), and was on the editorial board of the Trotskyist political magazine London Labour Briefing (LLB).

These groups had no time for any Northern Ireland political parties other than Sinn Fein.

A few weeks after the 1983 Harrods bombing that killed six people, Mr Corbyn flew to Northern Ireland to meet Danny Morrison, famous for having asked a Sinn Fein ard fheis in 1981: "Will anyone here object if, with a ballot paper in one hand and an Armalite in this hand, we take power in Ireland?"

Troops Out marched for immediate and unconditional withdrawal of British soldiers. To the more political LCI, Northern Ireland was a colony, SDLP voters were "cannon-fodder ... manipulated and directed by a sophisticated management caucus" and, in the words of activist Diane Abbott - Mr Corbyn's one-time lover - unionists were an "enclave of white supremacist ideology".

LLB surpassed all of them by praising the bombing of the Grand Hotel in Brighton during the October 1984 Conservative Party conference.

The objective had been to kill Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and as many members of her Cabinet as possible in revenge for her refusal to capitulate to the demands of the hunger strikers three years earlier.

Five people died and 31 were injured, some of whom were disabled for life.

The LLB editorial had described it as a "serious political misjudgment", but this was utterly disowned in the next issue by the editorial board - of which Mr Corbyn was now general secretary.

He had already made his feelings clear by flaunting Gerry Adams in the House of Commons as his guest.

"We refuse to parrot the ritual condemnation of 'violence', because we insist on placing responsibility where it lies," said the LLB retraction.

"Let our 'Iron Lady' know this: those who live by the sword shall die by it. If she wants violence, then violence she will certainly get."

The only answer was "an unequivocal British withdrawal, including the disarming of the RUC and UDR".

The editorial board also allowed some light-hearted contributions. "What do you call four dead Tories? A start," was one of the rejoicing readers' letters.

The Provisional IRA were fast becoming Mr Corbyn's new best friends....

Throughout his adult life, Mr Corbyn has supported pretty well any revolutionaries as long as they're anti-American, but the IRA - unlike his country's forces of law, order and defence - has a special place in his heart.

Now he aspires to be Prime Minister, Mr McDonnell is shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer and Ms Abbott is shadow Home Secretary.